Pinocchio's Paradox poses the mind-boggling question of what would happen if Pinocchio said "My nose grows now." If he says it, but it doesn't grow, then he's lying. But since his nose grows when he lies, then he would be telling the truth. Pinocchio's sentence can be neither true nor false, it's a good example of the liars paradox. This paradox would cause Pinocchio's nose to grow IF AND ONLY IF it does Not grow.

A more fun/interesting paradox is the omnipotent one. (Now, be forewarned if you are deeply religious and/or don't like the use of logic and reasoning to question the validity of your god, then read no further).

For those still reading, here is the context of the paradox. It is used by atheists the world over and people who accidentally open the door to annoying Jehovah Witnesses and want to annoy them before they end up being annoyed by them. (It's a vicious cycle of annoyance) (For those outside the U.S. or unfamiliar with the term "Jehovah Witness" google "what are jehovah's witnesses best known for" to get a better context)

All the holy books make it clear and point out that God is an omnipotent being, which means and is defined as almighty, all powerful or infinite in power. He is then a being capable of anything and everything. That is were the omnipotent paradox comes into play to simply and easily disprove the existence of such a being/deity/god.

The paradox-inducing question is, "Can God create a rock so heavy that even he can not lift?"

Thus, if he cannot create such a rock, then it means he is Not Omnipotent/Almighty/All Powerful.

If he can create such a rock, then he cannot lift it, which means he is Not Omnipotent/Almighty/All Powerful.

This renders the whole concept of God/ omnipotence/ an all powerful being as a logical impossibility.

This usually shuts up religious fanatics trying to enlighten you in order to save your soul from the eternal damnation that their righteous God will bestow upon you, unless you convert/join their particular religious sect.

Experienced Jehovah Witnesses are so familiar with this question that once you get to the word "rock," they will immediately think "irreversible atheist," turn away and excuse themselves for taking up your valuable time, lest any young members with them pick up the bad habit of using logic and reasoning to question the validity of their beliefs.

Anyways, for those of you that read this far, I thought I'd just share this with you guys to see what thoughts or opinions you have.

Does it boggle your mind? Does it alter the beliefs you hold? Does it make you see the world differently? Does it matter? Or as the idiom goes, do you take it with a grain of salt?

Also, if anyone has other paradoxes that you find fun, interesting, or mind-boggling feel free to share them.

Logic is probably the most powerful form of knowledge in the world. Saying it can't be used to prove anything is retarded. Mathematics are all about number-based logic being used as a measurement for reality, for example.

.. As much as I suck at that specific kind of logic, I was once told I was excellent with articulate logic. I've heard this god-rock example before, and will definitely use it to shoe away the locals the next time they start to congregate on my doorstep with torches and pitchforks.

I jest, of course. They're nice people. I've never seen any Jehova's come through here before, thank god.

Weren't paradoxes a way of proving something to be impossible though? Like, time travel and stuff.

time travel ist possibly ¬.¬! the faster you move the slower time becomes say you travelling at 100billion light years for about 2 years you will have not age much but people moving on earth moving at 4000MPH will haved moved on about 10 years to your 2 years but to u would seem like only 2 years

Weren't paradoxes a way of proving something to be impossible though? Like, time travel and stuff.

time travel ist possibly ¬.¬! the faster you move the slower time becomes say you travelling at 100billion light years for about 2 years you will have not age much but people moving on earth moving at 4000MPH will haved moved on about 10 years to your 2 years but to u would seem like only 2 years

But that's effectively travelling to the future, which doesn't create paradoxes. Going to the past, on the other hand....

Paradoxes don't prove or disprove anything. They are just sentences, not necessarily logical. You could take a bunch of words and put them together, but the resulting sentence won't always make sense. You need to actually test something, not just talk about hypothetical scenarios. Things are not always as they seem on paper, since reality isn't so easily defined.

That being said, this paradox is really old and already has many counters. For one, it is something that can't be proven. An infinitely large rock is necessary if it is to be truly immobile, larger than space itself. But this is impossible, since space is needed for a rock to actually exist. Also, the question is flawed. It's pretty much asking if God can divide by zero or draw a circle with corners if he can do anything. You don't need the rock in there at all except to make it look like a real question. That, in and of itself, doesn't make sense, since it is logically unsound to be telling someone to divide by zero or draw a circle with corners, anyway. Omnipotence still won't allow something to defy logic. Either the rock must be immovable or God is omnipotent. Having both in the same sentence makes no sense.